Slip

Slip through my fingers one more time Love
what's gotten into the butter is that an insect
or just an eyelash lost like Me

How our looking led to this How it traces
old trails in the canyon how many tears
all that water so cold even in Summer

Left in you Isn't there some? Fight

Never You

It was never you
but now it is only

       the test never ends
        each requirement falling through
my fingers
hands and arms
        & they
could all say I am empty
but I am full (of you
full of fuel (your fire
            plus
the Glacial Lake Missoula flood
scouring each side of my heart

A Thousand

I've slept with you a thousand times
in my mind so multiply and divide
what is only the weather

4 a.m.

I see my reflection in the entryway doors.
Someone rushing around and busy. Only

barely appearing that way. To themselves.
That would be me. Do I love you less

at this early hour. I can only think of your eyes
and how they looked orange all of a sudden.
I thought this was when I really saw
what you looked like. Finally.

Tell Me Why Black Butte

That is what I wrote when I wrote it
inside the territory without a passport
I showed up to meet them shake hands
but they wanted more and I needed less

My head did not spin as much
on down from the pass

 where my Bebe rocked me where it
should have been longer
to reach what is now

Little Evil Window

There was that window again
closed but acting open.
I tried to feel something
all round its edges
but could not discover the origin
of the evil opening
hiding in plain sight.
This was the time I acted afraid
normally I laugh off the cold
just about this time of year.

About Time

Trees grass leaves all frosty at 6 a.m.
what can I expect but another round
with you in my half-dream--

Until the let-go the eye-opening



      light


making it all disappear again
the glances I remember and the orange glow--

I can bring it all back but never the same
each time